Cliff topped coastlines and Magical woods.

I'm feeling very lucky and exhausted in a happy way after a wonderful few days away in Devon.

It's been half term, so Jack and I booked 2 nights away in a hotel together, he's been working near Gloucester, so I trained it down, via Manchester to Gloucester on Wednesday morning. Even though it had only been a week since Jack went away, the anticipation and excitement to see him was really full, sleeplessness, butterflies, raised heart beat, the physiology of love.

As soon as I was swept up in his arms, I was calmed and we set off on a 3 to 4 hour journey to North Devon, we stopped for a cream tea on the way and the journey passed quickly with lots of chats and laughter.

We got closer, the world became almost entirely green and we passed through places called things like Fairy Cross as the thatched roofs began to appear regularly.

We arrived at our hotel, checked in and discovered we had been upgraded to a suit. A beautiful but quite laughable room, with a four poster bed, fire place, sweeping steps leading to a dressing room and a bath room complete with a wet room style shower and a double bath with jets!

We went for a walk that evening as the sun set along the top of a hill, a light house and Lundy Island in the distance, then we went for another drive to find a country pub that sold local Cider and good food. We soon discovered that decent Cider is difficult to find in North Devon, so we settled for lovely food then went back to our hotel for champagne in the bath and massages.

The next few days were filled with beautiful walks, by the sea and in the most magical of woods. We lay on a thick quilt of long grass overlooking the highest point of the hills above the sea, feeling the sunshine on our faces, in each others arms and talked about adventures past.

We approached the woods like eager children and also as lovers, holding hands, wide eyed, looking closely to identify trees and seeing the signs of spring. Jack pointed out Beech nuts and the cerise male flowers on Willow trees and we discovered wild garlic, snowdrops and crocuses

Nothing is a bother to Jack, his relaxed spontaneous approach make each day a joy. We changed plans at the last minute from a romantic meal to head off to see my Friends Glenn and Sarah and there beautiful boys Jy and Finn and Jack earned himself big wet kisses from Jy, nearly 2 by playing Duplo aeroplanes.

We visited some lovely friends of Jack's in Dartmooor Forest and we went on a magical walk in a majestic wood, filled with incredible looking lichen and ending in a cathedral of trees.

All the sea air and wood bathing in the beautiful, deeply quiet Devon woodland and clear skies has been the rest and difference I needed from the reality of work.

Even though we took every day at a Sunday pace not leaving the room to go out until 11 or so I kept being surprised by the amount and quality of light I was getting. Although I was low on sleep, it just didn't matter as I could float through the days.

I could of stayed much longer, but luckily have one more true Sunday to unpack, be ready for work and have a bit of social thrown in. Tea with the lovely Laura and dinner at Mike and Jemma's this eve.

It really is the beginning of spring, just the other side of this tiny Island we call home. Hold on tight I tell myself, soon there will be a greater quality of life as light extends beyond the hours of work and the juggling of work and play rebalances.

Dirty Feet

Feeling a little delicate this morning after 5 hours kip and a raucously fine evening. I had a rare opportunity of my sister out in town. We went for a curry and a fair bit of wine for Paul's birthday, then headed over to 'Dirty feet' at our new local Bar loco. Paul was a bit suspicious prior to arriving. He took it literally and thought it was going to be a bunch of hippy's with some kind of obligation to take your shoes off!

So we arrived with Charlotte already pretty tipsy and tottering on her killer heels, it was already really busy upstairs in a lovely, Fenham cosy bustley kind of way. Charlotte found a Jenga game to get involved with, stating that she was shit hot at Jenga because of playing with her little girl, Paul did a bit of loitering with the drinks and I got into the electro gypsy swing on the dance floor.

A couple of drinks later, Charlotte and Paul got down and dirty on the dance floor. They met the wonderful Paddy O'Conner and instantly hit it off. Manc's can always quickly find a few familiar reference points.

A fellow Sidney Grover asked Char, 'Have you been for a Royal?' this resulted in well over an hour of hilarity as Char went round a lot of the dance floor asking 'Have you been forra Royal?' in her best Manc accent then throwing her head back in laughter! She concluded that some of the crowd had been smoking dope because some of the younger unexpected crew looked a bit paranoid.

Charlotte fell in love with Paddy, mentioned to me she wanted to take him home and asked him if he wanted to come home with her be their pet! Paul got so involved in the bongo that he's featuring a massive thumb blister this morning.

I danced loads with such vigour that I accidentally head butted the lovely Clara May, the dance floor was heaving full of spinning and ass shaking smiling people, drinks started to get dropped and Paul and concluded about half 1 that it was probably time to head home.

We had a kitchen party with my i pod as Ian is away visiting mates in Leeds. So we had tea a crumpet each and Char gave us a fine rendition of Zumba 'Jai ho'.

Today, luckily for our fragile heads were off to Short Flat Tower for 3 or so hours of Spar time, it my gift to the most important Women in my life who have everything they could ever need. So in just over 3 hours my Mum, Char and I will be lay chatting in a huge, super bubbly hot tub looking out at the trees and sky. Then Char and I are off for the don of all treatments. It's called a Hammam, we get to be in a Moroccan inspired room, with heated slabs and twinkly lights. Were going to get scrubbed within an inch of our lives, slushed with water, covered in mud, and finally massaged. We get to do it in tandem and on request my Mum is coming in for the first hour before her full body Swedish.

Best go to buy bread and eggs to have with copious amounts of tea and ease our aching heads.